Ideas are living things whose growth we make possible or impossible by the language we use when describing them and reacting to them. Here are three simple ways to make growth possible.
• Respond to any idea first with "What I like about that is..."
• Preface new ideas with "What if..." This invites more imagination than critique
• When an idea is proposed that raises questions for us, we can respond with "How could we...?"
These simple ways of using language increases the variety, depth and usefulness of ideas, and allows some ideas to simply be effective sparks to an evolution of more and better ideas.